It is a safe journey on a Vembanad bus

KOCHI: If you see as many as 36 buses named Vembanad along the Kottayam-Kumarakom route, you have witnessed what a bunch of bus owners achieved when they gave priority to safety.
The objective of Vembanad Society was simple when they began operations in June 2011 - cut down the number of accidents along the stretch by regularizing service and maintaining a safe speed.To ensure that revenue generation never takes a back seat, they introduced an even simpler concept - share the earnings of a day equally so that no one suffers a loss.
And for the past one year, every day, the owners bring the day's revenue to the society's office, where they divide it equally, thus achieving a no-loss situation. When asked about the benefits they got after forming the society, P K Jayarajan, secretary of the association pointed out the reduction in maintenance cost. "During the years when the wages for a bus crew was directly related to the number of trips, drivers were rash, engines wore out quickly and accidents were common. Now there is no need for us to compete and so both maintenance and accidents have come down.
Earlier, whenever a bus accident occurred along this stretch, people and media were quick to blames us without taking into account the facts of the incident. But now they applaud this 'Vembanad' effort," he said adding that the daily average collection is around Rs 2,34,000. After Kumarakom, a similar initiative was started in Alappuzha and recently in the Kallara-Vaikom route. Jayarajan said the Bus Operators Federation in Kerala has plans to extend this Vembanad model across Kerala.
Kumarakom panchayat president Dhanya Sabu who applauded the initiative of the bus owners for bringing down accidents,
wants them to run services during the 9 pm -11 pm slot as the tourism location requires such a service. "Bus accidents have come down, but private buses are still competing and this time against KSRTC buses. This has to change since pedestrians, especially school children, could get hurt," she said.
Kochi: If you sight as many as 36 buses named Vembanad plying through the Kottayam-Kumarakom route, you have witnessed what a bunch of bus owners achieved through setting up a society to ensure safe journey.
During its initiation in June 2011, the objective of the Vembamad Society was simple. Cut down the number of bus accidents in the stretch by regularising services and maintaining safe speed. To ensure that revenue generation never takes a back seat, they introduced an even simpler concept - share the earnings of the day equally so that no one makes any loss.
And for the last one year, every day, the owners bring the day's revenue to the society's office, where they divide it equally, thus achieving a no-loss situation.
When asked on the benefits they got after forming the society, P K Jayarajan, secretary of the association pointed a reduction in maintenance cost.
"During those years when the wages for bus crew depended on the number of trips, driving was rash, resulting to wear and tear to engine and other parts, not to ignore the accident part. Now there is no need for us to compete and so both maintenance and accidents have come down. Earlier whenever a bus accident occurred in the stretch, people and media used to tag us as the perpetrators, regardless of whether we made the mistake or not, but now they applaud the 'Vembanad' effort," he said adding that the average collection would come around Rs 2,34,000.
After Kumarakom, a similar initiative was started in Alappuzha and recently in the Kallara-Vaikom route and according to Jayarajan, the Bus Operators Federation in Kerala has plans to extend the Vembanadu model across Kerala.
Kumarakom panchayat president Dhanya Sabu who applauded the initiative of the bus owners for bringing down accidents, however wants them to run services during the 9 pm to 11 pm time as the tourism location requires it.
"Bus accidents have come down, but private buses are still competing and this time it is against KSRTC buses. This has to change since pedestrians especially school children could get hurt," she said.